May 31, 2017
08:45 am JST

So wait a minute. I get "evacuated" from a tsunami-affected area, go off to live with my son in law in Niigata, have no plan to return home, ever, but as long as my hometown has not been reconstructed to my standards of "inhabitability," I am still an evacuee and entitled to compensation of one kind or another?

Gosh, you know 3/11 was horrible and all that, but how are these areas ever going to be reconstructed and reinhabited if people are just going to remain scattered throughout the country, counted using various systems, without any community or political cohesion?

By my reckoning from the numbers above, only about 55,000 of all "evacuees" are remaining in the area, presumably overseeing reconstruction of their former homes. Apparently the rest are maintaining claims of one kind or another, but not participating in reconstruction. Is it a stretch to think that they might not even WANT reconstruction? Maybe they are happy where they are.

Not long ago, the LDP guy in charge of reconstruction told people that the government is dong everything it can, and that maybe people should just go home. I think this is what he means. SIx years on, we should be looking at an end to this process of rebuilding these communities. If people do not move back themselves, how can they expect others to do so? The process cannot progress if the people don't move back or move on.

Communities HAVE been successful at reconstruction. Others show remarkably little progress. I am not sure the government can be blamed for that.

May 31, 2017
10:18 am JST

May 31, 2017
10:48 am JST

"so the numbers of evacuees hasn't decreased, "

If they decreased any faster, someone would criticize the government for removing people from the rolls of "clients of the state," so that is not going to happen, right? Are you understanding the process here or are you just going to find fault any way possible. In fact, reducing "the number of evacuees" is what the LDP government spokesman was recommending two weeks ago and he was forced to resign. Remember that? I am pretty sure you commented on that news.

"ust the support and and the way they are classified has changed."

Well. Yeah. What else is there to change? They are classified to determine their degree of support. Their classification is according to their calculated level of support. So you say this like it is a bad thing, but it is the process. Why be disappointed?

May 31, 2017
01:43 pm JST

The figure also dropped because people who fled after the nuclear crisis from areas other than government-designated evacuation zones became no longer eligible to live in free housing at the end of March and were excluded from the Reconstruction Agency tally.

Meaning they have fallen through the cracks....and the government should be ashamed!

Like so many other things here, fudge the numbers to make the statistics look good, when the reality is something totally different.

May 31, 2017
03:28 pm JST

Nobody fell through the cracks. They never had a reasonable cause to evacuate and yet for 6 years, they received taxpayer funds because they decided on their own to leave. Now after millions of yen, they have been told it is time to take responsibility for their own actions.

May 31, 2017
05:37 pm JST

These people's lives were completely turned upside down by the tsunami and their communities were devestated or otherwise depopulated. The amounts being paid to them are insignificant in the larger scheme of things. They deserve our sympathy and generosity.